One more quick question... Does it let you know if one of the drives is about to fail and needs to be replaced so you can save your data?
27160
OMG, NO! We had one fail without notice and it was a major problem. We thought the dual drive on ours would be a safe backup system, but the entire drive failed. A service company worked on it and we were fortunate to retrieve most of the data, but it was a very close call and expensive. Now we have TWO separate backup drives on all systems.
1495674
If it's already dead. No.It's dead. Your not going to get anything from a dead drive.
382736
No the hard drive doesn't work anymore and it's less than a years time. Also wd would not rma the product for me.
960910
Mine broke over a year ago. Thank God I got the warranty. It should recognize it as a separate drive to save one
827614
Yes, you can set up a notification by email but I haven't done it. I agree with Robert Showalter that you can't miss the beep on failure. I've had two drives die, recovery was straight-forward although the documentation is opaque.
1854448
The drives. I bought 2 as back ups and one of them failed within a year, maybe closer to six months. Luckily I noted a shutdown error was occurring and scanned the drive to find it was physically failing. I was able to save my data, but not everyone knows how to diagnose the subtleties of early stage disk failure.
220021
Yes, just be sure you do not install any programs on the drive or they may not run. If you are using the 2nd drive just for data it should be fine.
1118389
Hard to tell, but if the drive was working fine before putting it in the enclosure, then there's a good chance the enclosure is defective. The quality is pretty bad, unfortunately... Same thing happened to me. I complained and got a replacement. Any chance you can put your drive in a different enclosure, to test it?
2192892
That's a tough one to answer. My drive just crashed a few months after getting it but there's a few reasons why. One reason? Faulty hardware. Another reason? You over worked it or let it get corrupted / broke your OS but that's an easy fix. There are more complex ones like ram causing it to bottleneck and use your hard drive to take the slack. Imagine always running a light bulb non stop for a long time. It's all relative to the amount you use the product. I'd say one of this caliber should last a few years at least, but not always. It's a solid drive, just don't push it too hard, as these things CAN break.
1761416
If this is the case, what happens if the original drive fails? Can you just replace that drive or do you have to reinstall everything?
546171
Hello J.L., It all depends on several factors: 1) Has the drive been recently been verified as being sound; does the SMART data indicate as being sound? All depending on your operating system, there are various tools to obtain this information. BUT this data has to be taken with the understanding that this is the drive reporting on itself. Personally I use SPINRITE to maintain and verify all my drives. In over 20 years of using computers, I have NEVER had a hard drive failure because I use SPINRITE regularly on all my hard drives. It is the BEST hard drive maintenance and recovery software I have ever used. I can't explain how it does what it does but it works ! So my recommendation is to purchase SPINRITE from grc.com and run it on your drive. After you use it, you will know how dependable your drive is to store an image for recovery. Steve Gibson is the developer and creator of SPINRITE. I have watched his podcasts on TWIT.TV.COM (Security Now) for 9 years now and he is my most trusted person you can encounter anywhere. Bottom line: Purchase SPINRITE from grc.com and run it on your drive. After the review of the findings, you will know whether or not you can reliably create an image on your WD drive. I hope this helps, jp
629561
I've just had my 4th large (>1TB) WD drive failure in less than 2 years. I've had more drives fail in the last 2 years than in the last 20. All of them large WD drives. I'm done with WD. All these failures were with drives less than 3 years old. Just absolutely unacceptable.
1120024
I have a "very old" External Hard drive...not this make/model...I turn it on once/quarter to backup recent files...it's probably over 3 years old. Recently, I bought one of these WD Elite 500GB models...my plan is to backup on two externals...in case one fails. I know this seems lame, but it is the only way to ensure everything sticks around. Seems like its worth the extra $100.
2232316
Don't know, mine failed after 90 days. Not sure 3rd-party units are ready for prime time; OE units in laptops, etc. seem to be OK. If data is critical, stick to proven tech: mechanical HDs. Sometimes older is better.
1894889
I just checked www.wdc.com Typed in Serial Number from drive I received. Answer from WD: "The warranty for this product has expired. The product is not eligible for replacement. If you need technical assistance, please send us email." So either Seller is warranting this drive OR NO ONE IS!!! I, for one, would like to hear from the seller on this matter!
632287
I have heard of this issue in ASUS laptops, but have not experienced any kind of Drive failures in mine. Though Ive only had mine for a little over a year now. Sorry to hear about that, hopefully you can recover the data.
100537
Yes, I have. There is no problem doing this as these drives are generic. However, the company I bought it from sent me one which appeared new (with new packaging) but tested as having thousands of hours of use on it. The test said it was working just fine but it wasn't a new device. I did not pursue the matter further as I did not intend to put this computer into daily use and it was not worth the hassle.